NCHSAA adjusts how it seeds

CHAPEL HILL — The playoff seeding process is going through a three-part change after a decision by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association's board of directors.

The board unanimously approved to alter the way teams will be seeded for the state playoffs Thursday.

Flaws of the previous system surfaced a few weeks ago when prep football seedings were released. There were instances of teams playing host to an opponent with a much better record because of where teams finished in their respective conferences.

Additionally, certain teams missed out on the playoffs in favor of teams with lesser records earning automatic bids.

"We knew it was going to be a trial, a work in progress," said NCHSAA president Joe Poletti, assistant superintendent for the Carteret County School System. "What we tried to do is balance and create fair opportunities for everybody. … We looked at the results and made some decisions from that."

At-large berths will be determined by conference finish. Previously, MaxPreps rankings were used to determine at-large bids, but now will only be used as a tiebreaker if needed.

"We think that makes a tighter format," Poletti said of the decision to use conference finish. "I’m sure we’ll tweak it again at the end of the year."

Starting with winter bracketed sports, the athletic association will use an "adjusted MaxPreps ranking" instead of the MaxPreps ranking system it had been using. The new ranking formula won't include margin of victory as the board decided that how much one team beats another by "is not in concert with the core values of NCHSAA."

"Once it was confirmed that (margin of victory) factored into the MaxPrep ranking, we knew we had to do something," NCHSAA commissioner Que Tucker said. "We can’t have a margin of victory that is going to dictate how much another team beats another team by. That just slaps in the face our whole concept of sportsmanship."

The final change regards seeding of teams in split conferences. For a team to be seeded as a No. 1, it must finish in first, second or third place overall in the conference and / or have an overall winning percentage of .500 or higher. If a team doesn't meet those requirements, it will be seeded with the rest of the at-large teams.

The NCHSAA previously selected the highest finishing team in each classification of a split conference, regardless of overall place and winning percentage.

"You have challenges in a split conference, for sure," Poletti said. "With the geographical realities we have in this state, we have to have those split conferences. But how do you create equity in that conference and then statewide? We think we put something in that helps with that."

Another notable motion involves an amendment to football skill development guidelines.

Football will match all other sports in that as long as a first responder or licensed athletic trainer is present when protective equipment (must be certified) is worn, a team can have as many skill development sessions as it would like.

Sessions can only last up to 90 minutes and can not occur during the dead period, as outlined by the previous guidelines.

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